The main authors of the bill were Reps. Lamar Smith (R-Tex.), John Conyers (D-Mich.), Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), and Howard Berman (D-Calif.).
The lawmakers said their bill is aimed at protecting industries under siege by piracy and counterfeiting.
“Millions of American jobs hang in the balance, and our efforts to protect America’s intellectual property are critical to our economy’s long-term success,” Conyers said in a statement.
Hollywood, media firms and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce immediately hailed the bill, saying the government needs to take a stronger stance to prevent the rampant illegal use of online content.
“Over 2 million Americans across all 50 states earn a living and support their families in jobs connected to the making of motion pictures and television shows. They deserve better than to see their work stolen out from under them by criminals out to make a profit,” said Michael O’Leary, executive vice president for government affairs at the Motion Picture Association of America. “This legislation hits rogue sites where it hurts: their access to American consumers and to the financial services they use to make money.”
But some public interest groups and Web firms and their investors said the bill is overreaching and could harm businesses that provide services on the Web.
Many analysts have asked whether Internet piracy is a large enough problem to warrant such expansive legislation. As Brad Plumer wrote:
Are online piracy and copyright infringement hurting the economy? It’s always been hard to find solid evidence on this score. The copyright industry — record companies, movie studios, software makers — is always citing reports suggesting that IP infringement is destroying 750,000 jobs per year or costing U.S. companies $200 billion. But as the Government Accountability Office found last year, most of these claims “cannot be substantiated.”
And now, as Nate Anderson reports at Ars Technica, the International Intellectual Property Alliance is taking a brand new tack, arguing in its latest annual report that “piracy inhibits [our] growth in the US and around the world.” But as Anderson observes, the actual numbers in the report don’t seem bear this out. Since 2007, businesses based on copyright have been growing faster than the economy as a whole by a full percentage point. What’s more, the “core” copyright industries (sound recording, movies, TV, software, publishing) are thriving, shedding fewer jobs than the economy as a whole and earning record profits overseas, where piracy is even more rampant.
Now, there are a couple of ways to look at these figures. Maybe these industries would be growing even faster if Congress cracked down on IP infringement and online piracy. Maybe these industries will soon be hurting unless piracy — especially piracy abroad — gets reined in. But it’s hard to find solid evidence that IP infringement is a pressing problem facing the U.S. economy at the moment.
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